Volunteer jobs in Godstone, surrey

Help shape the future of volunteering at Samaritans.

At Samaritans, volunteers are at the heart of everything we do. As the needs of communities evolve, we need to rethink how people connect, contribute and make a difference. We’re looking for a Volunteering Innovation Advisor to help us explore, test and embed new approaches to volunteering for the years ahead.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is curious about emerging trends and motivated to find ways to reach people who do not currently volunteer with Samaritans. You’ll help develop new and more flexible models of volunteering—looking beyond our existing approaches to remove barriers, engage different audiences, and create opportunities that are both meaningful and sustainable.

This role is focused on developing new ways of attracting volunteers, with an emphasis on reaching new audiences and exploring different approaches.

Contract

• £30,000–£33,000 per annum plus benefits
• Full time (35 hours per week)
• Permanent
• Hybrid working with travel to Ewell office
• In-person working: Meeting in person and working collaboratively are things we value. We ask you to work in person around 2 days or more per month.
• We are passionate about flexible working—talk to us about your preferences

What You’ll Do

In this role, you’ll bring ideas to life by exploring how volunteering needs to evolve. You’ll research emerging trends and changing expectations to help shape new roles, opportunities and approaches to volunteering—particularly focused on attracting and engaging new volunteers to Samaritans.

You’ll use insight to design and test new ways of reaching different audiences, removing barriers to involvement, and creating more flexible and inclusive opportunities. This isn’t about refining what already exists—it’s about developing and trying new approaches that will help us grow and diversify our volunteer community.

You’ll help answer questions like:
• How can Samaritans offer more flexible and inclusive opportunities?
• What motivates volunteers today, and how is that changing?
• How do we ensure our volunteering reflects the diversity of the communities we support?

From gathering and interpreting insight to shaping ideas, planning projects and working with colleagues and volunteers, your role will be to turn thinking into action—helping to build a more inclusive, future-focused approach to volunteering across the organisation.

What You’ll Bring

• Curiosity and openness to innovation, with experience of exploring new ways of working
• Ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of people, including staff and volunteers
• Ability to use research and insight to inform decisions and shape new approaches
• Experience of contributing to change, improvement or innovation projects
• Experience in a volunteering-focused organisation, with an understanding of volunteer engagement, including how to reach and involve different audiences

Full Job Description and Person Specification below

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Why Samaritans?

At Samaritans, you’ll be part of a people-first organisation deeply committed to inclusion, compassion and learning. You’ll contribute to a team where your voice matters, your expertise makes a difference, and your work helps save lives.

We welcome applications from individuals with lived experience and encourage those from underrepresented communities to apply. We are committed to creating an environment where all our people feel seen, heard and supported.

You’ll join a values-led organisation with a powerful mission and a collaborative culture. We offer flexible hybrid working, excellent benefits, and the chance to make a tangible difference in suicide prevention across the UK and Ireland.

For further information about Samaritans, including our charity structure, values, employee benefits, and application process, please read our recruitment brochure available below. You can also visit our careers website to access this.

We recognise the enormous benefits and the social justice imperatives of ensuring diversity at every level of our organisation. Samaritans is wholly committed to inclusion and diversity and to building a culture and environment where everyone is appreciated for the unique person they are. To ensure Samaritans is representative of those we support and who support us, we particularly welcome applications from disabled, racialised minority and LGBTQ+ candidates, as these people are under-represented at Samaritans. 

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Apply now

You will be asked to complete short application questions and submit your CV. Please note the application questions have a 300word limit for each answer.

At Samaritans, human connection is at the heart of everything we do. 

We do not use AI at any stage during the selection process. Your application will always be carefully reviewed by the recruiting manager or a member of the Talent Attraction Team. 

We kindly ask that you avoid using AI tools to generate your application or interview answers. We want to hear your own ideas, insights, and writing style so your unique strengths can shine through. We recognise that some candidates may use assistive technology or tools to help with accessibility, structure or grammar. 

​Applications close: midnight on Sunday 7th June

In person interviews: w/c 15th June (KT17 2AF)

Wimbledon Guild is a community charity offering practical help and support, so 
that no one in Merton has to face life’s challenges alone. Whether money’s tight, 
someone is feeling low or overwhelmed, or they’re looking for new friends and 
activities locally, we’re always here.

At Wimbledon Guild, our team of over 200 volunteers makes a real difference, supporting 
and connecting with people of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences across Merton. 
Their support is truly invaluable, and we’re looking for a Volunteer Programme Manager to 
help us continue creating an inclusive and forward-thinking volunteering culture. 

In this role, the Volunteer Programme Manager will collaborate with six internal departments 
as well as our Marketing and Communications team to champion best practices in volunteer 
management. 

The role involves overseeing recruitment, training, supporting, and supervising our incredible 
volunteers, making sure they feel empowered and valued every step of the way.

In return, Wimbledon Guild offers a welcoming and supportive working environment with 
opportunities for professional development.

Volunteering Assistant

Bowel Cancer UK is the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity. We’re determined to save lives and improve the quality of life of everyone affected by bowel cancer. We support and fund targeted research, provide expert information and support to patients and their families, educate the public and professionals about the disease and campaign for early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care.

We currently have employees working across four nations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Thanks to the generosity of our community, we’re in a privileged position to be able to deliver our ambitious new strategy, On a Mission. There are huge challenges facing bowel cancer patients across the UK and our community needs us now more than ever. We’re building a strong and united team to bring us closer to a world where nobody dies of bowel cancer.

Job Summary for Volunteering Assistant

The Volunteering Assistant supports the Head of Volunteering in delivering the organisation’s strategy by strengthening volunteer management, engagement, and development. Working across departments, the role ensures smooth day-to-day volunteering operations, supports both volunteers and role managers, and contributes to projects that enhance the overall volunteer experience.

Key responsibilities

• Provide administrative support to the volunteering function, including managing the volunteering inbox and maintaining accurate data
• Support volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and engagement activities across programmes 
• Assist role managers and volunteers, ensuring compliance with organisational standards and processes 
• Coordinate volunteer events, communications, and recognition initiatives 
• Maintain systems and resources (e.g., intranet/SharePoint) to ensure up-to-date information 
• Monitor engagement metrics and contribute to improvements in volunteer experience 
• Contribute to wider projects, guidance, and best practice across volunteering

For more information on responsibilities and person specification, please refer to the job description attached.

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and at Bowel Cancer UK we are committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Successful candidates may be subject to either a satisfactory, basic or enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS - UK), (PVG – Scotland) or Access (NI) dependent upon the role. There is no cost to you and will be processed on your behalf.

To improve and strengthen the organisation’s volunteering programme by putting clear policies, systems
and processes in place, so managers can confidently recruit, welcome, support and keep volunteers in
their own teams.

To develop our volunteering offer by strengthening volunteer recruitment, support and retention, while
increasing the diversity of our volunteer pool and removing barriers to participation for underrepresented
communities. This includes support managers to create meaningful, accessible opportunities that reflect
the communities we serve.

To ensure volunteers are effectively integrated across organisational services, providing valuable support
to staff teams and enhancing service delivery. The postholder will promote a positive culture of
volunteering, ensuring volunteers feel valued, included and well supported.

There will be a lot of opportunity to make your mark, deliver change and support a very willing and
enthusiastic team to develop together. We’ll expect a great deal of you but in return you’ll be well
supported, invested-in and given lots of opportunity to learn and grow as an organisational leader.

Are you a strategic thinker ready to shape volunteering engagement? Are you adept at spotting opportunities and making things happen? We're seeking a volunteer involvement professional for a key role to research, design and embed new programmes that harness the power of skilled volunteers.

About the role

You’ll develop innovative ways to engage this untapped talent pool and bring new audiences to volunteer with Parkinson's UK. You'll co-create opportunities that meet the needs of our community and collaborate with colleagues across the charity to put your ideas into action. Your work will contribute directly to matching volunteers to projects that influence and improve every Parkinson's journey.

Join our friendly, fast-paced and passionate team and be part of a powerful community united by one mission: improving life with Parkinson's.

What you'll do

• Champion the value of volunteering through partnering across the charity to drive forward new ways of involving highly skilled volunteers

• Provide consultancy and coaching for teams on effective ways to involve skilled volunteers in their work 

• Research, design, develop and trial new ways to attract and engage skilled volunteers 

• Design, develop and lead a skilled volunteering programme that matches them to suitable projects across the charity and responds to the needs of the Parkinson’s community

• Collaborate with, and challenge, leadership around volunteer role development, recruitment and onboarding of skilled volunteers

What you'll bring

• Innovative approaches to develop new ways of working with and engaging skilled volunteers

• Experience of developing mutually beneficial commercial partnerships with highly skilled individuals

• Proven experience of providing high quality support to colleagues, informed by an understanding of good practice in volunteer involvement

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences including senior leaders

• Excellent relationship building and influencing skills, with the ability to challenge and influence at different levels in an organisation

This is an exciting time for Parkinson’s UK and we would love you to join us.

Please apply by sending us your CV, together with a detailed supporting statement which will fully demonstrate how you meet all the criteria of the role, as stated in the "What you'll bring" section of the job description.

Interviews for this role will be held on 15 June 2026.

Anyone can get Parkinson’s. It’s vital that the people who work for Parkinson’s UK are representative of our diverse community. We actively encourage people from all sections of the community to apply, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, or religion.

Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a long-established and ambitious charity, supporting young people across the UK to develop confidence, resilience and skills for life. Through a network of over 400 units and the commitment of more than 9,000 volunteers, MSSC works with over 14,000 young people each year, providing transformative experiences rooted in challenge, community, learning and adventure. We are proud of the difference we can make to young people’s lives, often in communities that are challenging for other charities to reach.

We are now seeking a Director of Volunteering & Growth to join the Senior Leadership Team at an important point in our development. We have an ambition to significantly grow our Cadet numbers, requiring us to strengthen our infrastructure, grow our reach and volunteer numbers, and ensure we are delivering consistently high-quality experiences across the country.

Reporting to the Chief Executive, this is a broad and pivotal leadership role with responsibility for a diverse and operationally critical portfolio. Key responsibilities will include:

• Focusing on growing our Cadet and Volunteer numbers, supporting MSSC to expand its reach and impact while maintaining quality and consistency
• Leading and developing our Volunteering strategy, strengthening the recruitment, retention and support for the large, national volunteer base which is vital for our successful expansion
• Providing strategic leadership supporting young people through safeguarding and ensuring the Cadet Voice is heard and reflected in our decisions, and we strive for consistently high standards across the organisation
• Overseeing safety, safeguarding, risk and compliance, ensuring robust frameworks and a strong organisational culture in relation to safety, governance and accountability
• Driving the development of systems, processes and infrastructure to enable effective delivery at scale across a dispersed network of federated local Units
• Leading core support functions, including governance, legal and risk, policy and insight, conflict resolution ensuring the organisation operates efficiently and sustainably
• Working collaboratively across the Senior Leadership Team, helping to shape strategic direction and deliver and monitor progress against organisational priorities

This is an exciting, broad role and we are not expecting someone to bring experience across all aspects; you will be supported by a team with functional expertise. We are looking for experience of driving strategic development and growth within complex, volunteer-led organisations, working at scale with volunteers, including leading services that support, enable and engage diverse volunteer communities. You will also have a strong understanding of governance, safeguarding and risk, alongside a track record of delivering transformation and improvement. Just as importantly, you will bring a collaborative, inclusive and values-driven approach, and a genuine passion for improving outcomes for young people. Experience within the youth sector would be welcome but is not essential.

This is an opportunity to join a high impact, well-established organisation with a strong sense of purpose and a clear platform for growth, and to play a key role in shaping how it delivers its mission in the years ahead.

A full recruitment pack, including details of the role and selection process, is available through the ‘Apply’ button. Our recruitment partner is James Stephens, Director, Morgan Law Executive Search. 

Applications should be submitted as a CV and supporting statement. The closing date for applications is 11pm on Monday 1st June.

MSSC is committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation and welcomes applications from all backgrounds.